Course Description

The relation between food and religion is a universal pattern in human culture. All religions include table and food rituals that are commanded by fundamental beliefs on the origins of the community of believers, and on divine creation. Around the table and in their kitchens, believers are reminded on a daily basis of the fundamentals of their faith. Eating is believing, and is also a spiritual experience in addition to being a necessary physiological activity. In addition, all religions include systems of food prescription and prohibition. This course will review the variety of anthropological and ethnographic accounts of the tandem food/religion in diverse cultural contexts. Students will be able to conduct a short ethnographic research on the course’s theme in a religious community of their choice.

Requirements: Four reading annotations (40%), one research paper (45%), and in class presentations (15%)